In the aftermath of the horrific events in Las Vegas, today’s post suggests that Americans should emulate the British “stiff upper lip” attitude and should work to keep calm in the face of mass violence. This is not easy, given how horrific such events are, and of course such a stoic reaction will likely be unrealistic for those who actually had loved ones impacted by the tragedy. Furthermore, this proposed sense of calm should not involve an illogical and inhumane degree of apathy and complacency in the aftermath of outrageous violence. Nor does it suggest an abandonment of the desire to find policy solutions to address and mitigate the problem of gun violence.
Category: Journalism
Amazon Should Locate Its 2nd Headquarters in a Struggling Midwestern City
Amazon has announced it will expand to a second headquarters outside of its current base in the Pacific Northwest. It is inviting companies to bid to be the next home of the Amazon corporation, and there are some 50,000 jobs at stake.
The contest is not the kind of development in the modern economy that I like to see. Instead of companies staying in a particular community and investing in its development, which would be the most ideal situation, giant corporations are instead often eager to relocate to whatever city offers them the best deal.
Of course, mayors have lobbied business leaders to bring jobs to their home cities for decades. However, companies considering expansion into a new region often appear to have a clear shortlist of contenders and a largely internal relocation process, rather than promoting this type of publicly-announced nationwide bidding free-for-all. Very unlikely markets have expressed their hopes of winning the Amazon second headquarters lottery, just as pro basketball fans in almost every city with an NBA team, even unlikely contenders, think their local franchises will somehow convince LeBron James to sign with them. Sorry to break it to the people of New Orleans, but the Pelicans aren’t going to get LeBron, and the Big Easy isn’t going to become Amazon’s next tech hub either.
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How The Commercial Pressures of the Web Warped Journalism
Franklin Foer’s autobiographical article in the most recent issue of The Atlantic presents a fascinating case study of how the “attention economy” created by the monetization of the Internet distorted the journalistic output of a once-storied American political journal. Foer’s misadventures as editor of The New Republic are just one example of the familiar story of how the migration of content to the Internet damaged the revenue mechanisms of traditional newspapers and periodicals. Nevertheless, the specific details in Foer’s tale are compelling and instructive.
As most non-millennials likely recall, magazines such as TNR were once almost exclusively sold as complete issues (released on a weekly, biweekly, monthly, or quarterly basis) containing several articles by various contributors. Readers bought them through a subscription or at the newsstand.
The journalism industry has faced a fundamental dilemma after most content moved onto the Internet. There are two major ways to create revenue on the web: through subscribers to your site, or through advertising. Some major newspapers have tried to gain subscribers through limiting access via various versions of the paywall, and many of them now seem to be finding more success with that model by allowing everyone temporary access to a limited number of free articles before blocking further access to non-subscribers.
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Crisis of Media Legitimacy in the Digital Age
This is a wonky and non-partisan blog. Polemics are “off brand” for me. But today’s post raises some legitimate concerns I have about the plummeting trust in most news media sources today, and if it seems like a bit of a rant, it’s probably because I have a personal history with journalism and I’m passionate about trying to uphold the integrity of the profession.
I was a journalism major during my undergraduate years. I never thought of it as a controversial thing. I grew up in a very traditional and conservative state, but being a “reporter” never seemed like an occupational choice that would raise eyebrows or cause social disapproval, the way announcing plans to be an “avant-garde artist” or “vegan activist” or “founder of a nudist colony” or “socialist organizer” would have.
To the contrary, local journalists, on TV and in the newspaper, were generally popular and well-respected where I grew up. There was more skepticism about potential bias from the national media, but no one I knew dismissed network nightly news as sheer lies and propaganda. People still relied on national news sources for information and facts about the world, while (understandably and commendably) maintaining independent critical thinking about what it all meant.
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